Posted by Mandi on August 8th, 2014

Good Morning Quality Cake Lovers,

I do love working at Buxted Park Hotel in East Sussex, not only is it the most beautiful wedding venue but it also is lucky enough to have Marc who ensures that every wedding day runs seamlessly, he does it with such fun too.

I first met Wenjing and Julian at Christmas. They live abroad so specific trips were made to the UK in order to research specific suppliers and to see me in their quest for good wedding cake. Both Wenjing and Julian wanted a cake that not only looked good but tasted sublime too. It was like music to my ears when they asked all the important questions such as

• When do you bake your wedding cakes?
• What ingredients do you use?
• Are your designs bespoke?
• What training have you had?

To name but a few. For them the cake was one of the focal points of the day, it would be one of the main attractions in the reception room and would be on display virtually all day and it was then going to be eaten by all their guests so for them to be looking at something with an expectation of eating it, the final taste sensation had to be wonderful. I knew then that these were my kind of clients, discerning and on the look out for something truly bespoke to match their day.

They chose a three tiered cake the bottom tier was a 10 inch triple layer decadent chocolate mud cake, which oozed organic chocolate buttercream…yum! The middle tier was a triple layer sunny passion fruit cake with a light and fluffy buttercream of fresh and zingy fresh passion fruit…mouth wateringly good! The top tier was a rich a moist fruit cake embraced with my signature marzipan. The whole cake was covered in an ivory vanilla fondant icing.

Now we have something delicious hidden inside it was time to decorate this little beauty and make her ready to shine in Wenjing and Julian’s reception room. I take great care to match my decorations to the theme of the wedding so it was off to Zara Flora in East Grinstead to chat about the flowers that Wenjing and Julian had chosen for their big day. I just loved the colour choices and as you can see the end result was a perfect match of blues and pinks. I will say to match the pink was a challenge as the hue was most unusual but I was really pleased with the end result. The outside was a tumbling array of gorgeous petals topped with the rose that Wenjing had chosen in sugar paste.

I hope you enjoy the images and there are a couple of the flowers so that you can see the harmony between the bouquet and my cake; I love it when a plan comes together!

I was over the moon to be working with one of our ‘A’ team Claire Hill from Woodland Hill Photography and she has provided today’s images.

This week sees more cake fun in the La Maison Kitchen before we take some time off to take our son Jake to Manhattan. We are so, so proud of him as he is about to study for three years at the Stella Adler Acting Studio. If we weren’t already proud enough of his achievements, he was offered one of 32 places out of over 1500 applicants. I am going to miss him dreadfully but can wait to see what the next stage of his life brings.

Posted by Mandi on July 23rd, 2014

Today the La Maison kitchen is going to whizz you back to a bygone era as this is a cake I designed for Katie and Tim for their amazing 1950’s country wedding in Ardingly West Sussex.

When I first met Katie I knew that I wanted to design a cake for her wedding, the ideas she had really started me thinking on what would look good on their wedding day. Well lucky for me Katie had the same idea so we had a very happy afternoon sampling cake and talking all things country vintage.

Here at La Maison I pride myself on being a designer rather than any old cake maker churning out the same thing week after week. It is why I will not take on more than one wedding commission per week and I am very strict on my baking times. I want my discerning couples to have the freshest, moist and most delectable cake on their day rather than some dried up old husk that has been made way too early!

The baking of Katie and Tim’s cake was started on the Thursday for their Saturday wedding. Katie was not keen on fruit cake, she wanted flavours that matched the essence of their day so chose triple layer cakes of sponge, strawberry conserve and a fluffy Madagascan vanilla buttercream. The top tier was a triple layer zesty lemon sponge with a fluffy lemon curd buttercream.

I spent a lot of time researching the flowers and colour theme of every wedding commission I undertake as I want my cakes to blend seamlessly with the décor of the venue. Once the mood board has been set I can then start to make all the intricate embellishments that will adorn my little beauties. Decorations have to be made in advance for several reasons; firstly they are time consuming to make and the delicate little embellishments do need to set before the design comes to life on the cake.

There are several stages to achieve before even fondant icing a cake; it really isn’t simply a matter of baking and then whacking a bit of icing on top and don’t even get me started on cake designing in this humidity!!! The last stage is to design the outer layer of the cake with all the lovely embellishments I made earlier. For Katie’s cake we had a rose and bunting theme along with delicate little country flowers cascading down the side of the cake.

On the day itself I transport the cake in sections and put it together at the venue. I always bring my cake kit with me just in case of any hiccups during transportation too. Katie wanted an array of homemade cakes with my cake as the centrepiece to this table. So I set up my cake first and then designed the whole table around it. I was so pleased with the finished result and everything was just perfect.

The ‘A’ team were back in action with Claire at Woodland Hill Photography as the photographer. Emma Tindley our very own designer with a bespoke dress too, so it was great to be with the ‘gals’ on this very special day.

Enjoy the images and I will be back soon with another bespoke design at Buxted Park Hotel.

Posted by Mandi on December 2nd, 2013

A couple of fun and funky birthday celebration cakes have gone out recently, one in East Grinstead West Sussex for an 18th birthday which was a huge cricket bat! This was a vanilla sponge and jam filled deep cake and covered in delicious vanilla fondant on a green iced board with a few tufts of hand iced grass for authenticity!
Gregory who turned 18 is a massive cricket fan and player and so this was organised by his mum as a surprise.
Having known Gregory myself since he was in nursery with my son Jake I knew this was the perfect cake for him!
It weighed an absolute ton and went down a storm.

The second cake was a Sound Desk style cake to be delivered to Cowden near Edenbridge in Kent and was a deep chocolate sponge filled with organic rich chocolate buttercream and covered in a soft vanilla fondant.
This was a fun one to do for a sound producer who was turning 50.
Having scoured pictures of sound desks, most of which are black or grey or a combination of both with lots of buttons, knobs and wires I knew where the design was coming from!
I decided to airbrush the whole birthday cake in shiny black and then set about making the knobs and buttons by hand along with a couple of plugs and wires and a display screen with a green line of a sound wave on it.
I set the whole cake on an iced board which I then painted and handcrafted to look like a wooden desktop and dangled a couple of wires from the plugs down the side of the cake. The effect was definitely rather fabulous even if I say so myself!
Transport was fun as it was to be met halfway and transferred into a Mini!
All arrived safely and was a great surprise to the whole family.

I do love a challenge!!

Well it is of to get some Christmas decs up now.
have a great week
love Mands xx